SF/fantasy book meme

[tigerfort]

From wellinghall. The top fifty SF & fantasy books (where from? I don't know). Bold the ones you've read, strike the ones you hated, italicize the ones you couldn't get through. Asterisks for the ones you loved - more asterisks, more love. Plus signs for the ones you own.

I can't be bothered with stars; I've been meaning to put together a list of recommendations for cs2 in any case, so if anyone else is interested I might post it here. The list strikes me as the fifty best-known (although I guess Eddings and Jordan would make that) rather than fifty best, but maybe that's just me.


1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien+
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov+ (Asimov's best-known work, not his best)
3. Dune, Frank Herbert+
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A Heinlein+ (I might re-try this at some point)
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Leguin+ (Good generic fantasy, but Leguin has written much better stuff)
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson+
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K Dick+
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley+ (hated would be too strong, but goodness it was tedious)
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury (of which I have only fading memories)
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe+
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov+
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish+
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett+ (need I comment?)
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester (not actually his best work, IMHO)
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey+
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card+
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R Donaldson+
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman+
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling+
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams+
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice+ (hated is still probably too strong, but disliked, certainly)
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K Le Guin+
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K Dick+
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C Clarke+ (Great book; pity about the awful series that followed it)
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven+
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, JRR Tolkien+
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson+
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner+ (again, his most famous but not his best)
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A Heinlein+
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock+
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks+ (this cannot be a best 50[1])
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

[1] no offence to Terry, who I once chatted to at some length at a very quiet signing and is a lovely man, but that isn't even one of his best fifty books. It's a stunningly mediocre LoTR-ripoff, which sold quite well and on the basis of which he then wrote lots of other books set in the same world, many of which are better, and at least some of which[2] are much better.
[2] I haven't read them all; there are too many and I have other things to read :)

Comments

[damerell.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what it's a fifty-most of, although there do seem to be some best-knowns making for terrible choices. Stranger in a Strange Land? Heinlein is better the thinner the volume, and SiaSL is fat and jumps the shark midway through. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Well, they made a sodding movie of it, but if you are a normal person and don't like that solipsist vanishing up one's own bottom Dick does in his novels you are better served by his short stories, and if you do many of the novels do it better. 451 is hardly Bradbury at his best. Leibowitz I can only assume is well known amongst people who were struck by copies flung out the windows of those who have tried to read it. Donaldson's _dire_. Rowling's a talentless hack (but undeniably well known). Pohl makes the cut but not with Kornbluth and _The Space Merchants_? Criminal. The least said about Christopher Tolkien's filleting of the fish of his father's papers with the potato of imagination, the better.

I've got other gripes, but those are the obvious ones.

[tigerfort.livejournal.com]

Yes, I got fed up with making 'not his/her best' comments, but decided to leave the random handful that went in - presumably the ones that struck me as most egregious as I read through.

Looking at it, I don't think I can see anything written in the last twenty years except for the Rowling.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I can recommend several of the gaps, in particular Mission Of Gravity and The Stars My Destination.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

so if anyone else is interested I might post it here

Yes pls

[cs2.livejournal.com]

Sorry - I've been offline - but I would very much appreciate the list!